The Mobile Phone industry developed an extremely popular service in the early 1990's known as the Short Message Service (SMS). Since that time the use of SMS messages, also known as mobile text messages, among consumers has boomed in popularity. Businesses and organizations interested in utilizing SMS messages to communicate with consumers face a number of obstacles. First, the mobile phone industry and federal and state regulations enforce extensive rules around managing consent. No business can send SMS messages to a consumer without their express consent. Second, the technological options available for delivering SMS messages from computer networks are limited to informal e-mail (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol—SMTP) gateways maintained by mobile phone companies and more formal Short Message Peer to Peer Protocol (SMPP) gateways. The informal SMTP gateways offer simple delivery but are not intended for use by businesses. Because of this, businesses that rely on SMTP gateways may experience blocking by the mobile phone company if their use is discovered. The SMTP gateways do not provide reliable delivery and offer no confirmation that messages were delivered. The SMPP gateway is the preferred means for businesses to deliver SMS messages to consumers, but utilizing these gateways requires a time consuming and expensive registration process. Businesses desiring to utilize such delivery mechanism must purchase a registered shortcode which costs between $6,000 and $12,000 per year. In addition to these fees, businesses must undergo a lengthy and costly certification process with each major mobile phone company to verify that their planned use of the shortcode conforms to best practices for ensuring consumer satisfaction and avoiding unwanted messages.
The constraints surrounding effective use of SMS messages to communicate with consumers deter many businesses and healthcare organizations from using this method of message delivery.
What is required is a system and method that facilitates providing SMS based services to customers of a business.